Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [283]
“I told you I have my own private bodyguard. Down, Harvey. Actually, we’re temporary roommates.” She petted the dog’s head, and his entire hind end started wagging. “Harvey, this is Nick. He’s one of the good guys.”
Nick extended an apprehensive hand for the dog to sniff. In seconds, Harvey decided Nick deserved the royal treatment, and the dog stuck his snout in Nick’s crotch. Maggie laughed and pulled back on Harvey’s collar. Nick seemed more amused than embarrassed.
“So I see you have him checking out other things for you as well.”
His comment caught her off guard. She led Harvey into the living room, hoping Nick didn’t notice.
“I just moved in last week. I don’t have a lot of furniture yet. I barely got some of the blinds up late last night.”
“It’s an incredible house, Maggie,” he said, wandering into the sunroom and looking out at the backyard. “Pretty secluded. How safe is it?”
She looked up from the alarm system she was resetting. “About as safe as I would be anywhere. Cunningham has me under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Didn’t you notice the cable TV van down the street? He says it’s so we can catch Stucky, but I know he thinks it’ll protect me.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
She opened her jacket to show him her revolver in her shoulder harness.
“This is the only thing that I find convincing these days.”
He smiled. “Geez, I get so turned on when you show me your gun.”
She found herself blushing from his innocent flirting. Immediately, she looked away. Damn it! She hated that he could get her pulse racing by his simple presence. Had it been a mistake to invite him here? Maybe she should have sent him back home to Boston with Will.
“I’m going to check if dinner is possible. I only have the very basics.” She retreated to the kitchen, wondering what she would do if he went beyond flirting. Would she remember to act sensibly? “Would you mind taking Harvey out in the backyard?”
“No, not at all.”
“His leash is by the back door. Press the green flashing button on the security system.”
“It’s a little like living in a fort.” He motioned to the sensors and the alarm boxes. “Are you okay with all this?”
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
He shrugged and met her eyes. She realized he was feeling helpless, as though there must be something he should be able to do.
“It’s part of the job, Nick. A lot of profilers live in gated communities or houses with elaborate alarm systems. After a while you get used to having an unpublished phone number and making certain your address isn’t listed in any directory. It’s all a part of my life, the part Greg didn’t want to deal with. Maybe he shouldn’t have had to deal with it. Maybe no one should.”
“Well, Greg was a fool,” he said as he snapped the leash onto Harvey’s collar. Harvey licked Nick’s hand in advanced appreciation. “But then, I sorta see Greg’s loss as my gain.” He smiled at her, then pushed the green button and let Harvey pull him into the backyard.
Maggie watched them, wondering what was it about this man and that lean body and those charming dimples that could so easily stir up feeling and emotions she hadn’t accessed in years? Was it just a physical attraction? Did he simply set off her hormones? Nothing more?
When she met Nick last fall in Platte City he was a cocky, arrogant sheriff with a playboy reputation. Immediately, she had been annoyed with herself for being attracted to his charm and classic good looks. But over the course of that terrifying, exhausting week, she had the opportunity to see a sensitive, caring man who truly wanted to do the right thing.
Before she left Nebraska, he had told her that he loved her. She wrote it off with all the other confusing emotions people think they feel after being thrown together during a crisis. In Kansas City, he said he still cared about her. Now that he knew she was divorcing Greg, she wondered what Nick’s intentions were. Did he really care about her, or was she only one